Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 73
(Israel21c via JNS) — In the year 326, the Roman Emperor Constantine began construction of a church in Jerusalem on top of the remains of his predecessor Hadrian’s temple dedicated to the pagan god Jupiter. Constantine’s project became the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally identified as the place where Jesus was crucified and entombed. During repairs and restorations at the church, archeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza discovered rock layers of the stone quarry used for its original construction. These layers, accor...
(Israel21c via JNS) - India and Israel seem like a study in contrasts. Some 1.4 billion Indians live in a vast country stretching nearly 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) across at its widest point, while 8.9 million Israelis live in a tiny land no more than 135 kilometers (85 miles) wide. Yet they are bound together by surprising commonalities. For starters, they nearly share a birthday. India gained independence from Great Britain in August 1947 and Israel in May 1948. And each has a proud...
(Israel21C via JNS) — Regardless of which side of the conflict they’re on, young adults in three Taglit-Birthright Israel groups from Russia and Ukraine cannot return home after their free 10-day trip because of the war. So Birthright Israel has offered them the option to stay in Israel or reunite with their families when possible. The three groups include 26 participants from Ukraine. Sixteen of them were supposed to fly home on Thursday morning, but while they were sitting on planes, bombing began in Kyiv and flights were immediately canceled...
(Israel21c via JNS) — The closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Sunday brought to an end another Winter Games without a medal for Israel. Nevertheless, the six athletes representing the Jewish state had some high points to celebrate. Barnabas Szollos, 23, said at the start that his goal was to be in the top 30. He skied in five events and placed twice in the top 30, twice in the top 20 and once in the top 10, finishing in sixth place in men’s alpine skiing and setting a new Israeli record in that sport. He was just 1.0...
(Israel21c via JNS) — A few years ago, Shani Shukrun began matching people up on Facebook. Not for romantic purposes, but to bring together people in need with donors who could help them. Each time, she’d raise 300 to 400 shekels ($95 to $127) for a weekend shop for a family in need, or store dry goods in an extra room for someone to come and get. “But in 2020, my daughter Oreen was born,” recalled Shukrun, now 27. “She was born a preemie weighing 1.5 kilos at the height of the COVID pandemic, and I was really worried about people coming in...
(Israel21c via JNS) — The Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is not a disaster and may even signal the end of the pandemic crisis, say two prominent physicians affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Speaking to international reporters on Zoom through Media Central, professor Zvika Granot and professor Amnon Lahad said the Omicron variant is more infectious and less aggressive than previous variants —which is a good sign. “Usually, viruses that are very aggressive are not very infectious, and viruses that are very infec...
(Israel21c via JNS) - Just in time for Chanukah, Israeli archeologists have uncovered new evidence of the long battle between Hellenists and Hasmoneans in the holy land. Chanukah celebrates the 164 BCE victory of an army, led by a father and sons known as the Maccabees, over Hellenist (Seleucid) conquerors who'd outlawed Jewish practices and defiled the Temple in Jerusalem. In the years after the Maccabees purified and rededicated the Temple, battles against the Seleucids continued under...
(ISRAEL21c) - Eytan Buchman calls it a "shipstorm." Speaking from the Israeli headquarters of Freightos, the CMO is referring to the confluence of events behind a global supply-chain crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic triggered many of these events, such as increased online purchasing, labor shortages, port shutdowns and passenger flight cancellations. There is a severe backlog at the world's biggest ports, long delays in getting goods to consumers, and skyrocketing costs at every point along the...
(Israel21c via JNS) — A team of Israeli experts has solved the mystery of which proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 virus are responsible for causing the severe vascular damage seen in coronavirus patients. The novel coronavirus is made up of 29 proteins. Five of those proteins were identified as damaging to blood vessels in a study led by Tel Aviv University researchers Ben Maoz (biomedical engineering and neuroscience), Professor Uri Ashery (life sciences and neuroscience) and Professor Roded Sharan (computer science). “We see a very high inc...
(Israel21c via JNS) — The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine loses considerable effectiveness six months after the second dose, according to new Israeli research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study echoes findings published by Pfizer and Kaiser Permanente in Lancet earlier in the week, showing the vaccine’s effectiveness drops from 88 to 47 percent after six months. This study also proved the vaccine 90 percent effective for at least six months at preventing hospitalization of infected people. The Israeli study inv...
(Israel21C via JNS) - "I saw in the news that you were coming from Israel for us, and I was waiting for you," said a tearful young woman in Surfside, Florida, to members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit from United Hatzalah of Israel. "People kept coming up to us and saying how happy they were that we arrived," said Batya Jaffe, who was on the scene with her therapy dog, Lucy. They were part of the six-person PCRU team that landed in Miami Sunday morning, along with a search-and-resc...
(ISRAEL21c) - Danielle Wolfson's oxygen tank was almost empty as she neared the peak of Mount Everest on May 23. At such a high altitude and low temperature, she knew she could just sit down and await a quick death. She'd stepped over bodies of previous climbers who'd done exactly that. Two things saved this 43-year-old Israeli attorney: Covid and chutzpah. "We Israelis are a little aggressive and very creative," Wolfson told ISRAEL21c after becoming the first female Israeli to reach the top of...
(Israel21c via JNS) — For the first time in 12 years, Israel’s Likud Party and its head, Benjamin Netanyahu, have moved from the prime minister’s seat to the opposition in the Knesset. The new government, sworn in Sunday night, brings into power a broad coalition of eight political parties, spanning the country’s political spectrum. Heading Israel’s 36th government is Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett, the 13th Israeli prime minister. Bennett was sworn in along with Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid, who will serve as alternate prime min...
In the wake of a barrage of 250 missiles launched from Gaza into Israel, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin invited citizens from the Gaza “envelope” (periphery) area and greater southern Israel to his official Jerusalem residence, Beit Hanasi. “Dear families, groups of children and adults from the Gaza envelope and the areas under missile attack, you are invited to the President’s House to enjoy the educational and experiential tours of the visitor center. The President’s House will provide extra tours to help relieve your tension and give respit...
(ISRAEL21c via JNS) - A catastrophic tar spill washing up along Israel's entire Mediterranean coast may be the worst environmental disaster in Israeli history. While government authorities investigate the source of the offshore leak of at least 1,000 tons of sticky, toxic tar, many Israeli civilians and soldiers are helping with cleanup efforts that will likely take months. "Over the weekend I, together with thousands of volunteers, was at the beaches cleaning sticky, black tar oil off of dead...
(ISRAEL21c) - Even with Israel's world-leading rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations, drugs to treat Covid patients are in desperate need across the world. Two such drugs developed in Israel show great promise in clinical trials: EXO-CD24 and Allocetra. EXO-CD24 EXO-CD24, an experimental inhaled medication developed at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, cured all 30 moderate-to-severe cases in a Phase I clinical trial. Developed over the past six months at the hospital, EXOCD24 stops the "cytokine...
(Israel21c via JNS) — People who’ve received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine appear to be significantly less likely to “shed” or transmit virus particles that may be in their nose or throat. That is the finding of a study pre-published on Feb. 8 by Israeli scientists from MyHeritage Lab, the Central Virology Laboratory at Sheba Medical Center and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The study, the results of which have not yet been peer reviewed, may answer the key question of whether COVID-19 vaccines not only protect a person...
(ISRAEL21c via JNS) - A new species of bee unique to the sand dunes of Israel's coastal plains has been identified and described by Alain Pauly, a taxonomist from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. The species was named Lasioglossum dorchini in tribute to the Israeli bee researcher Achik Dorchin of the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University. This new type of bee is especially exciting because a decline in the world bee population is putting crop...
(ISRAEL21c via JNS) - The Dec. 10 announcement of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel marked the fourth time in the past four months that a Muslim-majority nation officially "friended" Israel. But this was different from September's historic Abraham Accords, linking Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and October's normalization agreement with Sudan. "Morocco and Israel have been on the same side geopolitically for decades,"...
(ISRAEL21c via JNS) - In preparation for the flu season and the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines needing special refrigeration, three mobile vaccination caravans were commissioned by Magen David Adom, Israel's national organization responsible for emergency pre-hospital medical care and blood services. Stationed at the National Operations Center in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv, the six-meter (19.6-foot) caravans can offer flu vaccinations and coronavirus testing around the country until the COVID-19...
(Israel21c via JNS) — Ten Israeli firefighters flew to California on Aug. 30. Over the course of 15 days of exhausting, dangerous work, they became a battalion of brothers with their California colleagues. “During the time we spent with these Israelis who came to help us, we became much more than coworkers. We bonded with them as part of our firefighting family,” said Chief Scott Lindgren of the Amador-El Dorado Unit of California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). “They b...
(Israel21C via JNS) Atop a soaring Tel Aviv skyscraper, an orchestra of Jewish, Muslim, Druze and Christian musicians from across Israel performed the Emirati song "Ahebak" ("I Love You") in tribute to the historic Israel-UAE peace treaty. Posted on Sept. 15 to coincide with the Abraham Accords signing ceremony in Washington, the clip now has a quarter-million YouTube views. "It has made a lot of noise," says Firqat Alnoor Orchestra co-founder and manager Hana Ftaya. "The reactions are...
(Israel21c via JNS) Food security is emerging as a key area in which the United Arab Emirates is eager for Israeli expertise, investors in each country tell ISRAEL21c. The Gulf states import more than 90 percent of their food. This has long been a concern, but the issue intensified when pandemic-related transportation stoppages disrupted supply for several months. The UAE now has a food security minister and Food Security Council. The Abraham Accords announced between Israel and the UAE on Aug....
(Israel21C via JNS) - Mazal tov to Hannah and Methuselah on their 111 miracle babies! The proud parents are date palms grown from ancient seeds uncovered in archeological excavations in Israel. These dates, recently picked at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, are a type that hasn't been tasted since the times of Jesus and the Maccabees. "Dr. Elaine Solowey, our director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, grew our first ancient date tree, Methuselah, in 2005," expl...
Physicians at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem report promising early results of a clinical study in which they are treating Covid-19 patients with immunoglobulin derived from the plasma of recovered patients found to have high levels of antibodies. The serum is prepared by Rehovot-based biopharmaceutical company Kamada. Three patients have already received the serum and are doing well, according to Dr. Yaron Ilan, chief of internal medicine at Hadassah University Medical Center....
